Hello
 

Hi everyone,

I'm not sure this is the appropriate place to post this, but I'm new to the forum. I just started playing with writing LOTRO plugins a few weeks ago. I had (I thought) some cool ideas for plugins, and I wanted to learn how to do it. So I wrote a plugin (well, it's still in progress) that I'd like to upload here and get people's feedback on.

My plugin (shown in the animation below) is called SequenceBars. It allows you to make quickslot bars that automatically scroll. When you click on a quickslot, the next quickslot is moved under your mouse cursor. You can click again without having to move your mouse.



You can have any number of quickslots in the sequence. When you get to the end, it goes back to the beginning. (Or, at any time, you can click on the title to reset it.)

You could use this for

• Swapping between sets of armor (just make a sequence including all of the item shortcuts)
• Executing long sequences of combat actions (e.g. Warden gambits).
• Stringing together a bunch of emotes or other chatbox commands (although you have to create the alias shortcuts yourself).

Well, that's about it. I spent a lot of time adding little features to it and making it user-friendly, and I have a lot more stuff I want to add to it. But I already think it's pretty useful now, so I want to upload it and see if there's any interest.

I do have a question, though. There doesn't seem to be any way to include an animated GIF (like the above) when uploading a plugin. In the message editor, image embedding is disabled. And if you attach the image, it just takes the first frame and converts it to JPG. Am I missing something?

Thanks,
Thurallor

P.S.: I'll go ahead and attach the plugin here, in case anyone wants to try it.

With BuildSwapper still not working correctly with the german client I am interested in Alternatives.

Glad to see, someone ist working on that.

Tested it (with the german client) and got an Error:
...Rings Online\Plugins\Thurallor\SequenceBars\Main.lua:2: Unable to resolve package "Equendil.Utils".

Argh. (facepalm)

I was using Equendil's HereBeDragons table viewer during development, and I forgot to remove it completely.

I updated the attachment in the OP. I'm at work now, so I can't test it, but crossing my fingers.

Thanks for trying it. :)

By the way, if you're going to use this as a build swapper, you probably should disable the animation feature, so the bar will scroll instantaneously. You can do this in the right-click menus: Global Operations -> Global Settings -> Animation.

Also, I need someone to translate the text into German (and French). If you like the plugin, maybe you can help.

nice idea!
it nearly looks like a carousel.

i didn't test it yet, but what happens, when you click on the next slot? will it scroll on normal, scroll two times or disappear?
:confused:

:eek:

I'm deeply impressed. Dropdownmenues, highly customizable, theres even a choice which font to use for the name of the Bar. Thats far more than the usual Plugin has.

First time I started it worked perfect. But that does Buildswapper to, the problems occur after relogging, because theres a difference in the way the german and the english client save data.

My Client crashed (not because of the Plugin) and when I reglogged I got an error:

Belegaer/Elrigh/SequenceBars.plugindata:9: ']' expected near ','
...lugins\Thurallor\SequenceBars\SequenceBarManage r.lua:29: Unable to parse file!

I deleted the Files in Plugindata and relogged again. The Plugin showed again, I customized it again and than I pressed "Hide". And I was not able to bring it back. All what is left is a Quickslot in the Middle of the Screen with an Arrow showing down, when I click on the Arrow I can add more Quickslots, but I can not move them or do anything else.

I thought of that. You might decide to skip one of the icons in the sequence.

In that case, it still only scrolls once, so you don't have to move your mouse. It just moves the "cursor" to the new position and continues.

Hmm, interesting. Can you attach your .plugindata file here? (Also include the precise error message, so I know where to look in the file.) I might be able to tell what the German client is doing differently.

If you hide a bar, you can find it in the Plugin Manager -> SequenceBars -> Options menu to show it again.

I'm not sure what you are describing here. Can you post a screencap?

Vielen Dank!

I'm switching my client to German now. This should be fun. :cool:

Edit: I just (re-)found Garan's excellent localization guide. Looking into it.

Just figured out that the strange quickslotbar belongs to the CombatQuickslots-Plugin. It was active but didn't show until I installed your Plugin.

Deactivated it and it didn't show up again.

Tried your Plugin on another Character. Worked perfect until I left the game and came back online. Had the Plugin checked in the Plugin-Manager to load automatically, but it did not load when I relogged. So I opened the Plugin-Manager and tried to load it. Got this again:

...e/PluginData/Haywinron/[DE-RP] Belegaer/Succinia/SequenceBars.plugindata:9: ']' expected near ','
...lugins\Thurallor\SequenceBars\SequenceBarManage r.lua:29: Unable to parse file!


If I'm right its the old Problem with the Turbine.PluginData. Vindar made a patch (mentioned in Garans Guide), which does not work anymore or messes up with Plugins which work correctly with the german client like Buffbars for example. (Tried it a while ago, didn't work on Buildswapper and broke Buffbars).

Here's my Plugindata-File:

Yeah, I have familiarized myself with the problem. Vindar's fix doesn't work in all cases (in particular, some cases that are used in my plugin). I'm investigating an alternate solution. Thanks again for your help.

Okay, I think I fixed it. :)

I'm updating the attachment in the OP. Please give it a try.

Thanks,
Thurallor

Just downloaded and noticed the new Files in the Turbine Folder. I already have that Folder and the Files. They are recommended for Tonicbars - to be precise: Tonicbars recommends Dragbar which requires Turbine Utils.

Not sure what happens, when I overwrite these Files now. Worst case: Tonicbars not working anymore.

Well, like we say in German: "Probieren geht über Studieren" - not sure how to translate it - Googletrans says "The Proof is in the Pudding" :confused:

Anyway, Beta-Tester Elrigh reports for Duty! *salute*

Working
 

Buffbars - working - check
Tonicbars - working - check

Sequencebar - working initially
Configuring, logging out, logging in, still there.

Works perfect as far as I can see at the Moment. Thanx for the good Work, my Kindhip and I appreciate that! And thank you for the other Thread, ALL German Players appreciate that I'm sure. =)

One thing I noticed: Changes to "Cursorstyle" seems to do nothing or nothing I can see.

Edit: Will add german translation suggestions later.

Thanks for the translations. I'm working on adding the localization now.

I've also noticed several bugs. I'll upload a new version in the next couple of days.

I found a couple of bugs, which I've now fixed. Unfortunately it means your existing .plugindata file is invalid and will have to be deleted.

• If you included multiple lines in a bar name by pressing the [ENTER] key, the saved data may not have reloaded correctly.
• When duplicating (cloning) a bar or group, the new bar/group was given the same ID as the old group. This caused much strange behavior, such as when you tried to delete a bar, it could delete a different bar instead.
• When editing the name of a bar or group, the cursor could move spontaneously, making it very hard to type what you intended.
• Using the "arrange bars" feature, bars with different cursor styles were not properly aligned with each other.
• The plugin will now save no more often than every 15 seconds. I'm hoping this will increase stability of the client.

I'm still working on localization. I have implemented the framework, but I have not modified the plugin to use it yet. There are a few additional things I need you to translate. I used Google Translate on them, so they are probably laughably wrong. :D Would you mind taking a look at the Locale.lua file, and checking all of the strings that are marked "[de]"?

Also, I'm not sure about the capitalization. I know in German nouns are always capitalized, even in the middle of a sentence. But what is the practice for capitalizing words in a context menu?

I just included these files in here so my plugin won't depend on the user installing them separately. As long as you leave them inside the Plugins/Thurallor folder, they will not be used by any other plugin, so you don't have to worry about breaking TonicBars.

I forgot to answer this.

The cursor style differences are very subtle:

I am completely open to including additional cursor styles that are more dramatically different, but it's not a high priority for me to design them right now. If you have a specific preference, I could add it.

Updates
 

Updates in v0.4:

• Mostly localized for German. Some things still need translating. If so, they will be followed by a dagger symbol (†) in the game. I would appreciate any further translation help you can give. Also, if anyone would be kind enough to do a French translation, that would be appreciated.
• The "animation speed" option is now bar-specific, rather than global.
• Clicking on a shortcut in the sequence editor no longer executes the shortcut.
• Dragging a shortcut to the sequence editor will now copy the shortcut, instead of moving it from its original location.
• Dragging an icon over a bar will no longer automatically open the sequence editor (which was annoying), although dropping an icon onto it will.
• You can now have a bar with only one slot in it. If you disable the animation, and hide the caption, it is now possible to create a very compact, fast build swapper.

You may need to delete your .plugindata file again when you upgrade to this version.

I will soon be ready to upload an initial release in the Downloads section. I think I've got all of the major bugs worked out, and I don't foresee people having to delete/recreate their .plugindata in the future.

Still works fine for me.

"Drag Icons here from your Inventory or skills. Right-Click for other Actions."
"Ziehe die Icons von Gegenständen oder Skills in die Felder. Rechts-Klick für andere Aktionen."

"Insert Empty Slot" - "Leeren Slot einfügen"

"Delete Slot" - "Slot löschen"

"Create Speacial Slot" - "Speziellen Slot erzeugen"
Whats that for?

In the Main Menue "Editieren" is the german word for "Edit", "Sequenz ändern" stands for "Chance Sequence". No need to use both, I would prefer "Sequenz ändern"

Einstellungen > Beschriftung > Position
"Links" instead of "Linken" and "Rechts" instead of "Rechten"

It's not implemented yet, and I'm not quite sure what it will be. It could include:

• Create shortcuts for "emotes".
• Create shortcuts for opening/closing bars.
• Create conditional jumps within a sequence (e.g. "Go to slot #5 if Morale < 20 %").
• Include all of the slots from another bar (allowing you to compose small subsequences into larger sequences).

Thanks for the translations. :)

I would prefer either the word "Slots" or "Felder", but not both of them. "Felder" is just the german version. But it's often used the english one instead caused by the world language.
Just as you can use "Fertigkeiten" instead of "skills" and "Symbole" for "icons".
But you don't have to. Nearly everyone that can install a plugin will understand the english versions for these words.

Thanks, Riggie1000. I am particular about this kind of thing. I will change it to use the German words consistently.

So now I've got

• Slot 1, Slot 2, Slot 3 → Feld 1, Feld 2, Feld 3
• 2 slots → 2 Felder

And I attempted to translate this myself, following examples from you, Elrigh, and Google:

• Bars and groups are listed below. Left-click to rename. Right-click for options. → Leisten und Gruppen sind unten aufgeführt. Links-Klick umbenennen. Rechts-Klick für Optionen.

Correct?

I also have a question about capitalization. Is it conventional in German to capitalize the first letter of all menu items and buttons, even when they are not nouns? E.g. zeigen / ausblenden; linke Seite; waagerecht ausrichten.

Danke.

Here's a new version (v0.5) with the following updates:

• Refinements to German text.
• You can now select the desired language in Global Settings.
• Added a "Snap to Grid" feature in Global Settings.
• Added a "Find" command in the Bar context menu, since it's possible to accidentally move a bar off the screen.
• New cursor style: Picture frame.

I updated the attachment in the OP.

I'll be ready to post an initial release in the Downloads area as soon as I write the instructions.

Correct! :)

Capitalization... hum... good question. To answer this one, I searched for some examples at home, e.g. my sound and PC. But all buttons I found were in English and all CAPITALS. Only on my printer there were Buttons with words in German and with capitals on the first letter, although they are no nouns.

• "Passend auf Seite skalieren"
• "Normales Papier"
• "Glänzendes Papier"
• "Ein"

Mostly it's unusual to write German words on buttons like

• "PLAY"
• "STOP"
• "ON"
• "OFF"
• "VOLUME"
• ...

Until the buttons are something special, so that not everyone knows about the English words on them, this is the point of writing all buttons in German.
I like capitals and correct words, hence I've a problem with myself. So I'd prefer to write all in CAPITALS. :D
In your case, I won't capitalize the first letters. But don't ask me why!

I don't know, if you know about it, but in German there are no capitals on "deutsch" and "englisch". But verbs can be written as nouns, so then they have capitals, too.

"Das Trinken aus der Flasche geht schneller als mit einem Glas."
but
"Aus der Flasche trinken geht schneller als mit einem Glas."

It's the same sentence.


I hope, I could help a bit.

Hmm.

There is one other thing to consider. LOTRO renders the menu titles in all-caps regardless of capitalization, although there is a size difference. So the choice really is between

1. GLÄNZENDES PAPIER

and

2. GLÄNZENDES PAPIER

Based on your advice, I am leaning towards 2.

It's your choice! :)

I did a look at some common windows programs (explorer, word, firefox). Their menu entries and buttons all start with a capitalized letter.
So I'd say, choose number 1.

As you may have noticed, I finally posted version 1.0 of this plugin here.

I have added some new text to the plugin. Would any of you be kind enough to translate the new text into German?

I am attaching the relevant file. Wherever you see something like this there is something that needs to be translated into German.

Vielen Dank!